TEHRAN – Donald Trump and his War Secretary Pete Hegseth are portraying themselves as Messiah in the war against Iran.

Probably, under this banner, committing war crimes is permissible or even necessary.

Trump posted an image of himself with Jesus-like healing powers. This happened after Pope Leo criticized his “madness of war” against Iran.

The United States has constitutionally made a separation between church and state, but the Trump administration is defying that law.

As the ISIS, commonly known as Daesh, felt and still feels it has a divine obligation to counter what it calls infidels -including Muslims, Christians, and Jews - Trump and his religious fanatics, to a lesser extent, also think or pretend they have a similar obligation. However, there are binding laws in the U.S. which restricts them. 

Fortunately, the Western society is chiefly intolerant of such superstitions. Facing a growing backlash, Trump deleted a post on his Truth Social account depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure. Even his ardent supporters reacted to the depiction. 

Speaking at a special prayer vigil in St. Peter's Basilica on April 11, Roman Catholic Pope Leo decried the use of religious language to justify war and said a "delusion of ?omnipotence that surrounds us ... is becoming increasingly unpredictable".

War Secretary Hegseth likes to talk about how the Christian God is on his side.

“The providence of our almighty God is there protecting those troops, and we’re committed to this mission,” Hegseth said. during an interview with CBS News in March.

A few days later, he said U.S. troops “need a connection with their almighty God in these moments.”

A couple of days later, at another event, Hegseth quoted Psalm 144 at a Pentagon press conference, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.”

Probably, striking a primary school in Minab with Tomahawk missiles in the early hours of the aggression on Iran on Feb.28, which led to death of over 160 students with their teachers, can be justified under Hegseth’s bigoted religious views.

If not so, why haven’t Trump and his Pentagon chief have so far remained unapologetic about this tragedy that amounts to war crime and crime against humanity?

Being a Christian, Muslim, Jew, or Buddhist is shaped by geography or what religion a person’s parents follow. Therefore, this statement by Hegseth at a National Prayer Breakfast that “It remains a Christian nation in our DNA, if we can keep it” is fundamentally misleading and wrong.

Since long decades ago people with different religions have been immigrating from one country to another, or from one part of the world to another such designations have lost their meaning. 

Also, Hegseth’s remarks that U.S. forces are armed with the “arsenal of faith” and his description on X in which he says American troops are “war fighters of faith” are like what Al-Qaeda or ISIS say about their operatives.

The Tramp administration, in full cooperation the Netanyahu regime, made an illegal aggression against Iran while negotiators from Iran and the United States were crafting a blueprint to resolve the disputes over Tehran’s nuclear program. Their joint attack shocked the world, particularly Washington’s allies in the world, including those in the West.   

“We Christians — alongside our Jewish friends and their remarkable army in Israel — need to pick up the sword of unapologetic Americanism and defend ourselves,” Hegseth wrote, according to CNN.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, another bigoted Zionist religionist who is also wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, told i24 TV news in August 2025 that he feels he is on a “spiritual mission” for a Greater Israel project and that he is “very” attached to this vision.

Also, Trump’s ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a self-described Christian Zionist, said a few days before that start of the war on Iran that “it would be fine” if Israel controls much of the Middle East under a biblical interpretation of its borders. 

========== “Christian Zionist”

During his confirmation hearing last year, Sen. Tom Cotton, an extremist Republican, asked Hegseth if he considered himself a Christian Zionist.  Hegseth said, “I am a Christian, and I robustly support the state of Israel and its existential defense and the way America comes alongside them as a great ally.” 

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) reported last month it is being inundated with more than 110 complaints from U.S. service members stationed across the Middle East, including one non-commissioned officer who reported that his commander told troops this war was “all part of God’s divine plan,” citing the Book of Revelation and declaring that “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon.”

Such description prompted more than two dozen Democratic Congress representatives to request an investigation into the report.

Hegseth is treating the Pentagon as an instrument of holy war. 

Riaz Khokhar, an independent researcher who wrote an article on the Al Jazeera website last month, said Hegseth has described his tattoos, the Jerusalem Cross and Deus Vult (“God wills it”), as emblems of the “modern-day American Christian crusade”. 

Hegseth also boasts about bearing the Arabic word kafir (“infidel”), a deliberate provocation of non-moderate Muslims.

Former Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, writing an article in Middle East Eye on April 5, said the U.S. must abandon ideological war against Iran. He said the Netanyahu-Trump alignment, supported by Zionist and Christian-Zionist ideological networks, “has replaced geopolitical rationality with a theopolitical war logic.”

As Trump himself is not fit for the job, his war secretary also does not deserve to lead the Pentagon. Hegseth is a person who has dismissed “tepid legality” in favor of “maximum lethality” by openly expressed little regard for the safety of Iranian civilians.

He has also declared that “no quarter” would be given to enemies in Iran, something that legal experts say amounts to war crimes.

In his war against Iran, Trump has portrayed himself as a savior who wants to bring prosperity to Iranians, but has penalized them through his “maxim pressure” campaign for many years. Now, facing a censure from the Pope who has criticized the “madness of war,” he is depicting himself as a messenger of God. He adapts to the evolving situations to achieve his avaricious goals and ordered his prejudiced and flattering war secretary to implement the mission. The mission includes glorifying war and violence under the name of religion to showing no respect for international humanitarian law.